Alia Bhatt says Bollywood hasn't had a #MeToo movement yet due to fear of victim shaming

Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt believes victim blaming is the chief reason why Bollywood has not had a #MeToo reckoning yet.

Ahead of the release of her upcoming spy thriller Raazi, Alia spoke to Anupama Chopra in an interview with Film Companion about a "mindset" problem that exists in our country.

"There’s a very big misconception that if you’ve been sexually assaulted or molested or been exploited in any way, with the kind of culture we come from, there’s a certain reservation. I'm saying this only because I also portrayed a character like this in Highway. There's a certain sense that it becomes your fault," she said.

The culture of sexual violence is ingrained in India's patriarchal society and Alia believes victims fail to report the crime due to a combination of factors from a fear of being stigmatised and shamed to a criminal justice system that lacks proper sensitivity training.

"Your families look at you in a certain way. Who's going to marry me? Where am I going to go after this? How will people look at me? It becomes the girl's fault," she says.

She admits even people in the Bollywood film industry have a similar mindset. So, she says it would take a lot of courage for actors to "come out and speak up."

Raazi, a cross-border spy drama set in Kashmir and based on the book Calling Sehmat, is directed by Meghna Gulzar.